What Blast Injuries Do to Your Brain

Dr. Daniel Perl describes the unique impact of a blast injury on the brain.

Our service members in combat unfortunately
have been exposed to significant numbers ofexplosions.And these explosions involve a blast which
produces what’s called a blast wave, whichis a very short high pressure pulse which
expands from the explosion in every directionat greater than the speed of sound.And this high pressure pulse passes through
the body, can be felt by the individual andactually has been measured inside the intact
skull.So we know that it passes through the brain,
right.Although it’s very short, it’s a very
high energy transfer into the brain.And nobody really knew what it might do the
brain, really.It hadn’t been studies in any detail.There’s been experimental work with small
animals, mice, and rats on this, but in termsof what the effects on the human were, it
really hadn’t been examined in any detail.With this high pressure wave passing through
the brain, and it takes only a few millisecondsto pass through and it’s very quick, the
potential of specific damage to the brainwas there and needed to be examined.

Dr. Perl is a Professor of Pathology at USUHS and Director of the CNRM's Brain Tissue Repository, where he has established a state-of-the-art neuropathology laboratory dedicated to research on the acute and long-term effects of traumatic brain injury among military personnel.

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which is dedicated to ensuring that impacted post-9/11 veterans, service members, and their families are thriving long after they return home.

BrainLine is a national service of WETA-TV, the flagship PBS station in Washington, D.C.